People have forgotten about it now, but in November there was a bit of a controversy when La Gazzetta dello Sport ran a story about a speech Gigi Buffon allegedly gave his Juventus teammates after a 1-1 draw with Lyon that month.
“In Serie A, they roll over. In Europe they don’t,” the pink claimed Buffon said. Understandably, Juventus swiftly issued a strongly worded denial and a couple of journalists sent to cover the champions’ next game at the J Stadium were turned away.
The firmest rebuttal of all, however, has come on the pitch. Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina in Florence was Juventus’ fourth in the league this season. To cast that figure in even starker relief, consider this: the Old Lady has now lost on more occasions than in three of her last five title-winning campaigns and it’s only mid-January.
Relatively speaking, this still isn’t a crisis. Juventus are top of the table with a game in hand, qualified first from their Champions League group and face Porto in the round of 16. They had won four games in a row in Serie A before losing at the Artemio Franchi, dispatching with this year’s revelation Atalanta, then Torino in the Derby della Mole and Roma.
But there is concern. An unprecedented sixth straight Scudetto no longer looks like a foregone conclusion. As manager Massimiliano Allegri says: “This [defeat] demonstrates that the title race was never over. A potential four-point lead is something. But Roma look solid and clinical at the moment. It’s going be tough right until the end.”
Something isn’t quite right with the Old Lady, at least by her impeccable standards. She is losing once every five games in Serie A. Too often this season the team have been unusually casual in their approach to games, either from kickoff or upon going 1-0 up. Lapses in concentration and a distinctly un-Juve-like lack of humility mean games they used to close out have become too open for comfort.
When teams have shown Juventus a lack of respect and taken the game to them — getting up and at ’em and letting them know they’re in a fight — they have struggled to punch their way out of it, especially away from the J Stadium. Every defeat this season has come on the road. “We’ve got to reflect on why, in the biggest away games of the season so far [against Inter, Milan, Genoa and Fiorentina], we have lost four times,” Giorgio Chiellini said.
He was full and frank about where Juventus’ problems lie. “Over the course of a season, every team finds their balance gradually,” he explained. “We’re still yet to find it. We haven’t found a balance that has allowed us to be solid. We’ve changed players. We’re a different team [to what we were before] and need to work on finding this balance by March. Now we’re a team like all the others.” A team that doesn’t just win, but wins and loses. Human.
The dynamic at Juventus has been curious this season. Expectation was raised by the statement signings they made in the transfer market over the summer. Everyone thought they would win Serie A by Christmas and that each game would finish four or five-nil to Juve. Recruitment also focused on making Juventus more polished. More artistic, less artisan.
This combination has led to a mini-identity crisis of sorts. Again, Chiellini touched upon this in September after fans and media alike were not entertained by a stalemate with Sevilla at home.
“We are not like Real [Madrid] and will never be like them,” he said. “They can win games 6-2 or 5-2. Juventus are not like that. We have to win 1-0 or 2-0. It’s in the club’s DNA. That does not mean we will not try to win 3-0, but we are a team that cannot concede a goal when we are ahead. We are not like Real and will never be like them. We have different characteristics.”
Clearly in that sense, Juve are not themselves at the moment. The defence has let in 16 goals already this season. It’s still the best in Italy — just — but it’s also their worst record at this stage in six years. You can highlight how banged up this veteran defence is this term. The “BBC” have rarely played together. In fact, Sunday was the first time since the end of October. Leo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli have only just come back from lengthy injury layoffs and Chiellini had a fever on Sunday, but Allegri picked him regardless. Quite how the in-form Daniele Rugani didn’t start is a mystery.
But they are not the issue. How Juventus defend as a team is.
Marchisio is the last man standing and although he has been back from an ACL tear since the end of October, he is still shaking off the rust. Sami Khedira has played more this season than he has in years. His game time is up by 13 hours on last term and one of the reasons Tomas Rincon has been signed is to give him a breather. Miralem Pjanic looks a success on paper. He’s Juventus’ second top scorer with seven goals and has set up seven. But a significant proportion have been from set pieces and he can be a passenger without the ball.
It was interesting to hear Chiellini bring up Pogba unprompted on Sunday. Subject to criticism in England earlier in the day, he is very much still appreciated by his former team. “We’ve lost a player like Pogba who was the LeBron James of football and, even when you didn’t notice him, he was impressive.” Impressive because when he didn’t score or assist, he still put in a shift. Contrary to the received wisdom in England, where Pogba has been accused of a lack of positional discipline and being too big time to do the unflashy things, he was fifth in winning the ball back (821) during his time in Italy and finished narrowly outside the top 10 among midfielders in tackles (284) too. To claim he could do it all was no exaggeration and what Chiellini is perhaps hinting at is that a player like Pogba made the balancing act easier.
Allegri still has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal, but as Luca Vialli has pointed out, sometimes having too many options can lead a boss to make confused choices. The Christmas tree, which Allegri had to turn away from in Florence because no right-backs were available, looks like the way forward. But much will depend on this team recovering their Juve state of mind, which their principal title rivals Roma are now consistently imitating to great effect.
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